The sterilization market has dynamically improved from moist heat sterilization (steam) to the progressive Ethylene Oxide (EtO), gamma radiation and low temperature gas plasma sterilization, and finally to recent technologies like NO2-based sterilization. The rise in chronic diseases, increase in the number of surgeries performed, and aging population are the major drivers for the growth of this market. The governments of various countries are taking regulatory actions to fortify hospitals with essential sterilization standards and prevent infections. Hospitals and medical care centers are using variety of technology options to reduce the incidence rate of hospital acquired infections (HAIs).

Similarly, with rise in global food supply and introduction of new and exotic fruits and vegetables, there is the need to ensure safety and quality of these food products. Sterilization, a safety measure, is achieved using technologies like gamma irradiation, ethylene oxide, e-beam, and X-ray.

Pharmaceutical sterilization plays a vital role and helps in making drugs safe for patient use. This is majorly done using filtration technologies and gamma irradiation of pharmaceutical components and powders like APIs. The role of sterilization in medical packaging has been of crucial importance, especially of finished products like saline bottles, needles, syringes, etc. In life sciences applications like research laboratories, steam sterilization (autoclaves) is widely practised to avoid any decontamination of media, culture, equipment, and glassware. Hence, with a wide array of applications, the sterilization market is expected to foresee a stable growth in the coming years. The global sterilization market is valued at $3.1 billion in 2012 and is estimated to reach $4.2 billion by 2017 at a CAGR of 6.1%.

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